Novel Measures of Response Performance and Inhibition in Children with ADHD

Fifteen children with ADHD aged 8 to 12 years and age and gender matched controls performed two different stopping tasks to examine response performance and inhibition and their respective moment-to-moment variability. One task was the well-established stop-signal task, while the other was a novel tracking task where the children tracked a spaceship on the screen until an alarm indicated they should stop. Although performance was discrete in the stop signal task and continuous in the tracking task, in both tasks latencies to the stop signal were significantly slowed in children with ADHD. Go performance and variability did not significantly differ between ADHD and control children in either task. Importantly, stopping latency in the novel spaceship tracking task also was more variable in children with ADHD. As stopping variability cannot be measured using the standard stop signal task, the new task offers compelling support for the heretofore untested prediction that stopping is both slowed and more variable in children with ADHD. The results support a response inhibition impairment in ADHD, whilst limiting the extent of an intra-trial variability deficit.

Parental Social Cognitions: Considerations in the Acceptability of and Engagement in Behavioral Parent Training

Behavioral parent training (BPT) is a widely used, evidence-based treatment for externalizing child behaviors. However, the ability of BPT programs to be maximally effective remains limited by relatively low rates of acceptance, attendance, and adherence to treatment. Previous reviews have focused on a variety of demographic and mental health characteristics of parents and children that are predictive of poor outcomes in BPT. This paper focuses instead on consideration of parental social cognitions, and how incorporation of these cognitions may, or may not, be useful in advancing the effectiveness of BPT. We first review evidence suggesting limited incremental effects to incorporating parental cognitions within the context of BPT programs. Then, we examine the role of two particular types of parental social cognitions, attributions and parenting efficacy, in relation to the initial stages of accepting and engaging in BPT. We conclude by noting limitations in available research on the links between parental social cognitions and BPT, and we outline a number of potentially useful directions that may clarify whether or not parental social cognitions should be accorded greater attention either in the initial stages or throughout BPT programs.     

Psychological Type and Attitude towards Celtic Christianity among Committed Churchgoers in the United Kingdom: An Empirical Study

This article takes the burgeoning interest in Celtic Christianity as a key example of the way in which churches may be responding to the changing spiritual and religious landscape in the United Kingdom today and examines the power of psychological type theory to account for variation in the attitude of committed churchgoers to this innovation. Data provided by a sample of 248 Anglican clergy and lay church officers (who completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales together with the Attitude toward Celtic Christianity Scale) demonstrated that intuitive types, feeling types, and perceiving types reported a more positive attitude towards Celtic Christianity than sensing types, thinking types, and judging types. These findings are interpreted to analyse the appeal of Celtic Christianity and to suggest why some committed churchgoers may find this innovation less attractive.     

Generation and associative encoding in young and old adults: the effect of the strength of association between cues and targets on a cued recall task

The generation effect (i.e., better recall of the generated items than the read items) was investigated with a between-list design in young and elderly participants. The generation task difficulty was manipulated by varying the strength of association between cues and targets. Overall, strong associates were better recalled than weak associates. However, the results showed different generation effect patterns according to strength of association and age, with a greater generation effect for weak associates in younger adults only. These findings suggest that generating weak associates leads to more elaborated encoding, but that elderly adults cannot use this elaborated encoding as well as younger adults to recall the target words at test.     

向乌托邦告别吗?

存在三种意义上的向乌托邦告别.从前的乌托邦主义者是马克思主义的先行者,但是乌托邦主义者缺乏中间阶段,脱离现实,不善生活.马克思主义并非不是乌托邦,而是一种具体的乌托邦的新事物.具体的乌托邦要求我们善于同可能性打交道,努力领悟可能性,使之成为一种智力参谋部,从而建设一个公正的、美好的、人道的社会.具体的乌托邦永不满足.     

Living in several languages: implications for therapy

Bilingualism and multilingualism have mainly been neglected in psychotherapy. This paper is based on qualitative research of subjective experiences of living in more than one language, using a combined grounded theory and discursive approach, which raises significant issues for therapy. These individuals experience themselves very differently in their different languages, and construct their languages differently. Languages acquire meanings in socio-political contexts as well as in local personal ones, and encode different concepts and notions of personhood. Issues of language choice within families and what it is seen to accomplish are discussed. Mothers and fathers view this issue differently. The paper argues for the importance of taking into account the differences languages bring for individuals, particularly in the context of colonialism and racism. Asking about families' experiences of their languages is a fruitful way to explore cultural meanings. Multilingualism is a resource for mental flexibility and creativity, but there are challenges in enabling living with its multiplicities.